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Search engine optimization (SEO) has become increasingly important for e-commerce businesses as a method of increasing organic growth and traffic to their site. SEO, as described by Search Engine Land, is “the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial’ or ‘natural’ search results on search engines.” SEO is seen as an alternative method from paid online advertising that delivers a higher return on investment.

Every search engine uses web crawlers to scan websites and determine the contents of the site. This information is used to rank websites based on user preferences. In a video produced by Search Engine Land, the process is explained within a library analogy. If search engines are a library containing all of the world’s knowledge, they need a system to determine which books (websites) are important to readers and answer all their questions. SEO is the process of a website including aspects that best meet a search engine algorithm’s requirements.

Google and other major search engines have made the SEO market more competitive over the years, in order to increase the value of achieving a high-ranking website. They sometimes make decisions as subtle as decreasing the number of organic blue links displayed from 10 to 8.5 on average in 2016,according to Searchmetrics. However, ranking highly on Google has become increasingly competitive due to their growing share of the search engine market. As of 2016, Google accounts for 76 percent of global desktop search traffic whereas Bing, Baidu and Yahoo make up for 22.5 percent of the market combined, according to NetMarketShare.

All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. — Search Engine Land

E-commerce websites benefit especially from SEO by driving organic traffic to their sites, increasing the probability that certain key performance indicators are met. The return on investment for SEO is higher than purchasing an ad campaign through Google AdWord, AdSense or online advertising space purchased on specific websites. Still, EMarketer forecasts estimated U.S. digital ad spending reached $72 billion in 2016. By prioritizing SEO, businesses are meeting the search needs of consumers and increasing the probability of higher traffic without having to overly spend on advertising.

Dirxion online catalogs offer SEO guide pages that involves a process of indexing every page of the printed catalog. This practice helps boost the overall SEO of the online catalogs site, as well as increase the likelihood of someone finding a catalog page when searching for specific products. Such is the case for Dirxion customer Aviall, whose online catalog pages can be found on search engines like Google and whose primary site (catalogs.aviall.com) shows up at the top of Google when searching for “aviall catalog” or similar terms.

While the 13 percent increase in online advertising spending is in the double digits, 2018’s predicted spending growth is the lowest in recent history. The percent change in spending from 2014 to 2015 was the largest with 19.7 percent. However, the B2B industry has maintained an online advertising spending growth of roughly 16 percent since 2013.

However, while online advertising has had double digit growth for years, many B2B businesses still prefer other traditional and time-tested methods of advertisement. Ytel, a communications company, conducted a survey which asked 2,000 B2B businesses their preferred outreach tool.

Dirxion online catalogs give B2B businesses another avenue in an omnichannel marketing approach and allows them to capitalize on the rise of the B2B e-commerce market. For B2B businesses with many catalogs spanning multiple departments of their company, Dirxion’s bookshelf feature organizes the individual catalogs on a central landing page and integrates cross-catalog searching. Existing e-commerce platforms can be integrated into the catalog or B2B businesses can employ the Dirxion order form feature to generate a request for a quote.

Many retail businesses experienced growing pains due to the market’s shift towards e-commerce and the omnichannel shopping experience. Some businesses are facing massive closures and potential bankruptcy. Many others, however, thrived through 2017 and can expect success in the months ahead.

“We will also remain focused on rapidly scaling up new fulfillment options including Same Day Delivery, which will be enabled by our acquisition of Shipt, and our recently launched Drive Up service.”–Brian Cornell, CEO and chairman of Target Corp.

Many companies are attempting to reach the same destination: a complete and comprehensive omnichannel for their customers. But such a business model isn’t exclusive to large corporations. Dirxion online catalogs give both retail and B2B companies a tool to create an omni channel approach for their businesses and aids any e-commerce operation. Both versatile and optimized with HTML5, Dirxion online catalogs ensure cross-platform and multi-browser performance standards are met.

Three-quarters of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to “good” ROI, according to a 2016 survey from Econsultancy. Dirxion online catalogs can aid a business’s email marketing strategies as the familiar layouts and designs give a campaign an additional layer of depth and interactivity. Printing and shipping charges are eliminated with Dirxion’s services, which give businesses a new and engaging method to attract customers.

Consumer confidence has increased with new adjustments to mobile application monitoring and quality control in both stores. Dirxion offers app development for both the Google Play and iTunes stores. Within the apps, customers are able to view a business’s online catalogs or download them for offline viewing. The catalogs are interactive and optimized with HTML5. Dirxion apps that include keywords such as “online catalog” and outline the app’s performance capabilities have historically been better received by consumers. Companies without a dedicated e-commerce mobile app benefit from an audience built from a Dirxion online catalog app. The apps can give companies a direct avenue to a captive audience of customers via push notifications that can alert them of new catalog releases, upcoming sales and other pertinent company news.

Amazon has also recently made a push into the online advertising market. Estimates from eMarketer predict Amazon currently holds a 7.3 percent revenue share of companies outside of the duopoly and is expected to reach 9.3 percent by 2019.

Amazon currently allows businesses to promote their products in related searches but hopes to eventually give advertisers better data to allow for more precise demographic targeting. Outside of paid promotion search results, Amazon is exploring mobile advertisements, video advertising and their newly-released “Transparent Ad Marketplace” which allows customers to bid on ad space across the web.

For e-commerce businesses, growing their websites through organic traffic is sustainable in the long-run, cuts costs that would be used to purchase advertising space and raises traffic at a higher rate than a PPC program would. Dirxion online catalogs offer SEO guide pages that involves indexing every page of the printed catalog. This practice helps boost the overall SEO of the online catalogs site. In addition, Dirxion online catalogs offer a variation of ad platform services for customers through widgets. The widgets, which come in a variation of sizes and implementations, can be either integrated into an existing advertising program or the customer can sell space directly to customers without having to use an external advertising service.

However, e-commerce and physical retail locations have shifted into a mutualistic relationship of sorts. Many consumers use physical retail locations to make returns on items that were purchased online. For instance, Kohls began accepting returns of certain Amazon items at 82 of their stores.

Amazon appeared in headlines all throughout 2017. Most noteworthy, however, was their $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods in June. For months afterwards, market analysts discussed what the acquisition meant for Amazon, its competitors and the future of e-commerce as a whole.

Now, in a market landscape in which Walmart’s e-commerce poses a threat, many have indicated that Amazon must continue to make new acquisitions and improvements to remain competitive. According to Gene Munster, Loup Venture co-founder, this means an acquisition of Target by Amazon.

“This raises the question: will this create long-term changes and tailwinds for Amazon? Will 300-ish Whole Foods stores be enough to compete meaningfully in the brick-and-mortar space against Walmart’s 4000+ stores?” –Lauren Thomas, CNBC

Regardless of the strategy, Amazon and Walmart are attempting to reach the same destination: a complete and comprehensive omni channel for their customers. But such a business model isn’t exclusive to large corporations. Dirxion online catalogs give both retail and B2B companies a tool to create an omni channel approach for their businesses and aids any e-commerce operation. Both versatile and optimized with HTML5, Dirxion online catalogs ensure cross-platform and multi-browser performance standards are met.

“We rolled out this capability chainwide at the end of the third quarter, and while this initiative is still fairly small in terms of demand, it’s proving quite useful and satisfying guests looking for hot brands that are not available in every store, such as MAC or Morphe,” – Mary Dillon, CEO of Ulta Beauty

Dirxion has partnered with Ulta Beauty to provide the company with new avenues to connect to their customers. This is done by utilizing Dirxion’s integration technologies and e-flyers within Ulta’s mobile applications. The e-flyer gives customers a new way to browse and purchase Ulta’s products in a format that can be sent to their customers at anytime from anywhere. This format also increases the efficiency in which Ulta can interact with and extend new deals to their customers. Integrated into their Google Play and Apple iTunes store applications, Ulta’s e-flyers receive a high level of exposure to their mobile customers.

“Taken together, the openness once touted by Google, Facebook, and Twitter has taken on a new, shall we say, less positive, meaning in the advertising world. The conversation there became about “brand safety,” and based on the steady string of stories this year wherein Google or Facebook got caught running ads in an “unsafe” fashion, neither company has given the marketing world confidence it has a real handle on the monster challenge of policing massive open platforms.” –Mike Shields, Business Insider

For e-commerce businesses, growing their websites through organic traffic is sustainable in the long-run, cuts costs that would be used to purchase advertising space and raises traffic at a higher rate than a PPC program would. Dirxion online catalogs offer SEO guide pages that involves a process of indexing every page of the printed catalog. This practice helps boost the overall SEO of the online catalogs site, as well as increase the likelihood of someone finding a catalog page when searching a company’s brand name. In addition, Dirxion online catalogs offer a variation of ad platform services for customers through widgets. The widgets, which come in a variation of sizes and implementations, can be either integrated into an existing advertising program or the customer can sell space directly to customers without having to use an external advertising service.